Exult, O heaven, and be glad, O earth! This God shone forth more from the tomb than He blazed from the sun. Let hell grieve, because it is undone; let it rejoice, because it is visited. Let it leap up, because it has seen an unknown light after long ages, and has drawn breath in the gloom of deep night. O beautiful light, that hast flashed forth from the bright summit of heaven, and hast clothed with sudden brightness those seated in darkness and the shadow of death amid the sulphurous streams! Straightway, therefore, the eternal night of the nether regions shone bright at Christ's descent. That gnashing of the mourners fell silent, the burdens of the chains were loosed, the fetters of the condemned were broken and fell away. The tormentors were stupefied in astonishment of mind. The whole impious workshop trembled together, when it suddenly saw Christ in its own seats.
Soon, therefore, the iron-hued gatekeepers, blind in the shadowy silences at Christ's descent, with fear pressing upon them, mutter such things among themselves: 'Who,' they say, 'is this terrible one, and this choir of snow-white splendour? Did our Tartarus ever receive such a one? Did the world ever vomit forth such a one into our cavern? This one is an invader, not a debtor; a breaker-in, not a sinner; a judge we see, not a suppliant; He comes to command, not to succumb; to burst forth, not to remain. Where, do you suppose, did our gatekeepers sleep, when this warrior was assailing our bars? If this one were guilty, He would not be proud or bold. If any offences darkened Him, He would never scatter our shadows with His splendour. But if He is God, what is He doing in the tomb?'
'If a man, what has He presumed? If God, why has He come? If a man, why does He loose the captives? Has He perhaps made a compact with our author, or has He perchance attacked and conquered him, and thus passed through our realms? Surely he was dead, surely he was conquered. Our warrior was mocked in the world; he knew not what havoc that cross would procure here for hell—that cross, deceiving our joys, giving birth to our losses, a hostile thing. By the tree we were enriched, by the tree we are overthrown; that power always dreaded by the peoples has perished. No living one ever entered here, no one terrified the executioners. Never in this place, blinded with soot and ever-black gloom, has an unwelcome light appeared. Or has the sun perhaps migrated from the world? Yet neither heaven nor the stars are visible to us, so that hell should nevertheless shine.'
'What are we doing? How are we being overturned? We are unable to defend our bloody houses against this one, and we are unable to hold the guardianship of our own Avernus! We are grievously thrown into confusion. We could not darken the light; and moreover we are in dread of our own destruction.'